Kim Lane Scheppele, “Counter-Constitutions: On Being the Object of a Coup”
Thursday, 22 January 2026, 19:15 CET
Senatssaal of Humboldt University
Unter den Linden 6
10117 Berlin
GERMANY
With Ethel Matala de Mazza
Sponsored by:
The Mosse Foundation
Institut für deutsche Literatur
Humboldt University
Mosse Lectures
ZeughausKino
Deutsches Historisches Museum
Description:Many of us believed Donald Trump when he said that he would be a dictator on day one. But many American voters did not – and they elected him to an office that the US Supreme Court had just said would make its occupant immune from criminal prosecution. In one year, Donald Trump has transformed the US Constitution into its opposite. He and his »MAGA« team have neutralized the congress, ignored the courts and created the largest police force in the world. This police force rolls into cities and displaces their local authorities, snatching people off the streets and out of their homes, ignoring constitutional requirements. This police force kills, maims and tortures without conscience because the prosecution service prosecutes only critics of this president and not those who commit crimes in his name. Constitutional rights in America – from basic liberty to free speech to equality before the law – have been turned upside down. Violence does not stop at the border. Trump has bombed multiple countries, killed people in small boats who are not part of any armed conflict, authorized a military operation to kidnap a head of state and appropriate its natural resources – and now threatens to annex by force territory belonging to an ally. In this last year, America has experienced a coup, brought about by an election, aided and abetted by a packed Supreme Court and now held in place by open violence. In this lecture, I will discuss the counter constitution under which Americans now live – and what hope there may be for democratic recovery.
Kim Lane Scheppele: Sociologist; Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Her research focuses on the rise and fall of constitutional governments, including developments in Hungary and Russia as well as in the US, the EU, and beyond. In addition to extensive publications in social science and law journals, Scheppele also publishes guest essays in the New York Times and regularly writes for the Verfassungsblog. She has been a visiting professor of law at Humboldt-Universität, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, and Yale and Harvard Law Schools.
Soziologin; Laurance S. Rockefeller Professorin für Soziologie und internationale Angelegenheiten an der Princeton School of Public and International Affairs sowie am University Center for Human Values der Princeton University. Zu ihren Forschungsinteressen gehören der Aufstieg und Fall konstitutioneller Regierungen, wobei sie zu Entwicklungen in Ungarn und Russland ebenso wie in den USA, der EU und darüber hinaus geforscht hat. Neben umfangreichen Publikationen in sozial- und rechtswissenschaftlichen Fachzeitschriften veröffentlicht Scheppele auch Gastbeiträge in der New York Times und schreibt regelmäßig für den Verfassungsblog. Sie war Gastprofessorin für Rechtswissenschaften an der Humboldt-Universität, der Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam sowie an den Law Schools von Yale und Harvard.
Photo Credit: Niels Leiser for the Mosse Lectures